{"id":1276,"date":"2025-03-01T19:45:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T00:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/?page_id=1276"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:22:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:22:01","slug":"visiting-composer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/novellas\/visiting-composer\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Composer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">Andrea Avery<br><br>2024 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED by Kelcey Ervick <br>ISBN 9781881163756<br>Forthcoming 7.1.2025<br>$17.00: Preorder <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/visiting-composer\/e2a745cd15b1e379\">Bookshop<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Visiting-Composer-Andrea-Avery\/dp\/188116375X\">Amazon<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pathwaybookservice.com\/products\/visiting-composer\">Pathway<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Enid Bluff has begun to fall out of love with music, not only because her ideas are too often dismissed by her male classmates (and professors) in the composing program where she studies at a mid-tier university, but because the boys&#8217;-club mentality around her has made this a lonely place to be, much less create. That changes, however, with the arrival of an enigmatic young woman who turns out to be the long-lost, presumed-dead American composer Gloria Clifford, straight from Baltimore in 1910. At nineteen, Gloria is at the beginning of her musical career, but she is already ensnared in an intoxicating and confusing relationship with her much older musical mentor\u2014and soon-to-be husband\u2014Luther Langdon. What follows is a story about friendship, the struggle to be both a woman and an artist, and those imbalances of power which end up repeating like unfortunate refrains, time and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">Reviews &amp; Such<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/largeheartedboy.com\/2025\/07\/10\/andrea-averys-book-notes-music-playlist-for-her-novel-visiting-composer\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/largeheartedboy.com\/2025\/07\/10\/andrea-averys-book-notes-music-playlist-for-her-novel-visiting-composer\/\">Largehearted Boy Book Notes music playlist for VISITING COMPOSER &#8211; July 10, 2025<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I am obsessed with this book . . . Andrea Avery\u2019s savvy and searching protagonist is on a quest to learn the tragic past of a mysterious visitor, even as she tries to reimagine her own future as a female artist. With searing humor and feminist fury, <em>Visiting Composer<\/em> is set powerfully against a backdrop of music, literature, and the teachers and systems that fail us. <br><strong>\u2013Kelcey Ervick, author of <em>The Keeper <\/em>and<em> The Bitter Life of Bo\u017eena N\u011bmcov\u00e1<\/em><\/strong> <br><strong>Final judge, 2024 Miami University Press Novella Prize<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Andrea Avery&#8217;s <em>Visiting Composer<\/em> is a fast, spooky, quietly devastating, paradoxically animating read. Her characters are reaching beyond a linear world of space and time, and the patriarchy that has determined its perimeters, for beauty, art, and connection stripped of their modern baggage. Whether they fully become or must abandon themselves in the process is the heart of the mystery of this elegant, haunting book.<br><strong>\u2013Bonnie Nadzam, author of <em>Lamb<\/em> and <em>Lions<\/em>, co-author of <em>Love in the Anthropocene<\/em><\/strong><br><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gorgeous, layered, and full of feeling, this brief trip out of time and into the hearts and minds of two psychically connected young composers is a delight. Avery knows how to write about music\u2014about the people whose main love is music, and the creeps who live to take advantage of them\u2014more movingly and accurately than anyone I&#8217;ve come across. This is a fantastic piece of work. <strong>\u2013Gregory Spatz, musician, author of <em>What Could Be Saved: Bookmatched Novellas &amp; Stories<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-normal-font-size\">About the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Andrea Avery is the author of <em>Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano<\/em> (Pegasus Books), which is being adapted for the stage. Her work has appeared in <em>Barrelhouse<\/em>, <em>CRAFT Literary<\/em>, <em>Ploughshares<\/em>, <em>Oxford American<\/em>, <em>Real Simple<\/em>, and other places. She holds a B.A. in music, an MFA in Creative Writing, and an Ed.D, all from Arizona State University. She is working on a novel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"727\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-727x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Visiting Composer cover\" class=\"wp-image-1257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-727x1024.jpg 727w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-768x1082.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-1090x1536.jpg 1090w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-1453x2048.jpg 1453w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_-600x845.jpg 600w, https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/02\/avery.cover_.jpg 1650w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"731\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/files\/2025\/03\/Avery_MUP_photo-731x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Andrea Avery\" class=\"wp-image-1267\" style=\"width:576px;height:auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andrea Avery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrea Avery 2024 NOVELLA PRIZE SELECTED by Kelcey Ervick ISBN 9781881163756Forthcoming 7.1.2025$17.00: Preorder Bookshop, Amazon, Pathway Enid Bluff has begun to fall out of love with music, not only because her ideas are too often dismissed by her male classmates (and professors) in the composing program where she studies at a mid-tier university, but because [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":995,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1276","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/995"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1276\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/miami-university-press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}